It may not be quite mathematically confirmed, but I think that 99.9% of Yeovil Town supporters have conceded that we will be playing League One football next season. Our first relegation in 19 seasons will be confirmed absolutely if we fail to beat Brighton and Hove Albion, or when Birmingham City pick up their next point. Alternatively, it will be confirmed if Birmingham don't manage to lose a total of 13 goals compared to ourselves over the remainder of the 2013-14 season. It is that which has made pretty much everyone admit that the journey is effectively over, and that our 46 game Championship adventure will draw to a close early next month when Middlesbrough come to town.

Yeovil Town have only been relegated twice before in their history - in 1984-85 and ten years later in 1994-95. In both cases we were heading down into the Isthmian League, and the club was in a bit of a mess. During the first we'd experienced three or four years worth of terminal decline, whilst in the second spell we were still suffering from the aftermath of the financial collapse of the club caused by the maths not adding up on the move to Huish Park and associated costs.

As such, we approached both relegations with a sense of gloom and trepidation - it wasn't just the embarrassment of a club Yeovil's size being shunted down to sixth tier football, it was the fear that we might fall further - as a club we were on a slide, and we didn't know when that slide would stop. As it happened, we managed to claw our way back up within a couple of seasons, but at the time we didn't know that. The club wasn't wholly within control of its own destiny.

Although relegation on any terms stings, the circumstances in which we will fall into League One for the 2014-15 season feel very different. The main reason why we are being relegated is because we got promoted during the previous season, and so comes as a by-product of that 2012-13 success. The problem is really that the Championship was a slight step too far for the club - our finances, our infrastructure and our crowds are not geared up for second tier football, and that became obvious when you began to walk around stadiums like Pride Park and Ewood Park ... and then took a tour around Huish Park. On every away trip, you walked around what were Premier League standard stadiums - whilst we competed using a set-up that hasn't changed since our non-league days.

I highlighted this back in May 2013 just after our Play-Off Final win at Wembley Stadium, and reading back on that article, I can't see too much I'd want to change. Nor do I have any regrets about the season that we've had at Championship level. Sure there are a few things over the course of the season that I'd like to have seen done differently - more of that once we've got beyond Game No.46 - but as I see it, the main objective is for the club to learn from that experience, and to then plan a return to that level in one, two or three year's time - hopefully better prepared.

As such, I felt that Gary Johnson's post-match interview put out exactly the sort of message that the club needed. Not too much wallowing in self-pity or making excuses. The message that was hammered home was that the club needed to become bigger if it was to progress further - he mentioned this word six times in his interview. Less of the 'Little Old Yeovil' and more of the 'Bigger Better Yeovil'. We will never have a platform that is the size of Pride Park or Ewood Park, but let's at least have one that that bridges the gap a little bit more than one where a single Queens Park Rangers player can earn more than the club's weekly wage bill.

Thus if the club are to get to the Championship again, and stay there, then it needs to evolve and change. Simply sitting there admiring the view and saying 'Look how far we've come' won't take you any further. Since he's returned for his second spell Gary has delivered similar messages out to the media and I sense that he will want to see some ambition from the club to take us back to the second tier if he is not to get itchy feet and look for a different challenge.

How the club does it is a different matter. For the past three years it has apparently put all of its eggs into one Food Store shopping basket, but that project has delayed and delayed, and the outcome may turn out to be a dead end, with the club freely admitting that they have no Plan B. There's also the question of how you become 'bigger' when one of the side effects of that plan is that the Huish Park site becomes 25 percent smaller. But we will find out in June whether the club have addressed all four major reasons for refusal, or whether there is a need for the club to look at its whole structure and way of working to determine how it moves forward - something I'd like to see it doing anyway.

The other question that all levels of the club should be asking is what they would have done differently this season, or what teething problems they encountered when the club first moved up into the Championship. My view is that what killed us this season is not what we were doing during the final four months of the season, but what we were doing between August and November. There's no doubt in my mind that we were an improved side from the end of November onwards - not perfect, but improved. So were there things that could have been done to avoid that slow start? It's something I'll go back into more detail on in due course, but it is perhaps where off-the-field and on-the-field matters blur.

Hopefully with the club having had the one season experience of the 'bigger' world out there, the 2013-14 season will have given them an idea of which areas of the club need to grow, and what plans need to be put in place to achieve that. As we saw in January when we played promotion-chasing Leyton Orient in the FA Cup there is a large gulf between Championship football and League One football - although we should be wary of assuming that is what will happen every week next season! It should give us the hope and ambition that we are not returning to League One to struggle - that we are returning to be a competitive club. And hopefully to be a 'bigger' one in the long run.

It seems to me that Mr Fry and his partners in crime are secretly breathing a huge collective sigh of relief. " we are back in league one so we don't have to open our collective wallets".And reading between the lines I wouldn't be surprised if we were looking for a new manager too for next season.
22/04/2014 19:01:22

camberwick green said ...

We all need to bear in mind that very few clubs get back up in less than 3 seasons BUT quite a few drop straight through the trap door. Even the mighty BCUTR have struggled. Expectations for next season need to be sensible.
22/04/2014 19:26:10

Simon Prout said ...

As always, a very rational and sensible article.
The only thing that irks me is being left with so many 'what ifs'.
Initially the highly dodgy refereeing decisions were the problem, we then had a period of last minute 'result changing' goals and then we suddenly find ourselves for the last few games without either Moore or Miller, lately our main source of goals. We look likely to miss out by around 4/5 points. There were so many opportunities where these could have been secured, on the face of it, relatively easily. OK the league table does not lie, but you know what I mean.........
22/04/2014 19:32:59

Paul Burge said ...

We are going down, who is to blame for this players? Directors or referees or all three.?
gary has done an excellent job with yeovil with a shoe string budget, but why have we got players like Morgan etc who has played a handful of games for the last 10 minutes and made a differance why not play them for a full game.
We have sold or sent back our goal scorers all because toys have been thrown out of the pram.
22/04/2014 21:18:21

Em said ...

Which players would you like to keep, for next season? Hopefully this season has made us a better team , and we be able to compete in league one.
22/04/2014 21:34:32

Stewart Barnes said ...

So what was the gain from a season in the championship? No ground improvements,Much the same squad will be with the club less loans at the end as in the beginning. So not a better squad will trot out to a lot smaller crowds in August. We must hope we keep Gary J, otherwise it could be another Season of struggle. Perhaps the owners will let us know where we are going?
22/04/2014 21:40:30

Graham Oakes said ...

We should remember this season and learn from it. For several years fans have complained about the match day experience and frankly things have hardly improved at all since our Conference days. The club need to reflect and learn.
22/04/2014 21:44:28

Ray Smith said ...

I've enjoyed this seasons ride in the Championship. Its been very frustrating because with a little bit of luck and a little bit better officiating we could have got a mid table finish. Gary has done an excellent job with very limited resources.
I don't understand the stance that we need to get a bigger stadium to progress. The crowds didn't flock in after our promotion and there was rarely times a bigger stadium would have resulted in a bigger crowd, the facilities do need to improve though. I can't see we are ever going to get a 10,000 home crowd.
As a matter of interest when will the break down of this seasons finances be revealed - it will be interesting to see what has happened to the Wembley money, promotion money & TV money and how much is left. Also has it been explained where the 2 million offer to the planners to find green space has come from? If the planners won't accept the development will the 2 million be used for team building?
22/04/2014 21:49:52

Stoke Green said ...

I think I know where youre coming from Simon. I too think this season has been a missed opportunity, and not all down to bad luck. GJ said on many occasions that certain players were not up to standard for the Championship but virtually nothing was done to address the situation. He also has experience at this level, so surely he knew that it would have been worth pushing the boat out for a couple of older experienced players who might have had the influence to have kept us in the division. After gaining experience during this one where we have rarely been seriously outplayed, another season would have been interesting! Did he have ideas and targets but the club were not prepared to back him with hard cash?? Another thing that irks me is John Fry's recent ramblings about us 'pushing on' from our position in the Championship. Pushing on should have been the topic of conversation last August or September not in March when if he'd looked at the league table he would have seen we already had one foot in league one.
23/04/2014 07:23:32

Jem Gardener said ...

My thoughts are a distillation of what's been said above. Mostly I have 'enjoyed the ride' but like Simon I can't help feeling that we have been left with some 'what if's'. At the start of the season I didn't feel we had assembled quite the team we would need to compete in the CShip. So it proved. Promotion is very hard to win for a club like ours now that we have reached (and indeed gone beyond) our level and I feel more could have been done to secure it. Next season will be very interesting. Will we return to L1 leaner, fitter, and smarter, will we slip back into mid-table obscurity or (gulp) will we slide... OTV!
23/04/2014 11:49:03

John Perry said ...

Having supported Yeovil Town for over the 50 years what they have achieved in 2013-14 has been incredible, with superb results against the like of Watford, Reading, Wigan and Leicester. We may be going down but we are doing so with all flags flying. I live near Nottingham and people cant believe just how small a club Yeovil are when I tell them. They want to compare us with the likes of Mansfield and Chesterfield, but they are both double the size of Yeovil. Lets think positive and what we have done this season will stand us in good stead next season, in what is a very competitive league.
23/04/2014 14:36:27

Haribo said ...

Football Clubs expand and contract within their size, not beyond it, according to how successful they are from time to time. It is incredibly hard to grow any business organically beyond its traditional size without having a clear vision, a business plan and investment.

The DNA of Yeovil Town Football Club is deep rooted in Non-League Football working practices, a mix of volunteers, an outdated Vice President culture, staff who’ve always been with the club, rather than staff with the correct skill sets and a belief in cost-cutting financial risk adversity. The mentality of the ‘Achieve By Unity’ philosophy at the club may have contributed heavily towards its past success, but your aspirational objectives need to be greater than lauding hackneyed ‘Little old Yeovil.’.

Business Plans and Investment Growth Strategies should look forward, seeking growth along a Roadmap, not looking backwards at past glories, whilst resting on your laurels. The club has promoted this ‘ Little Old Yeovil ‘ image, to the point that it has been echoed and championed by some fans, whilst offering a convenient excuse for failure. As small budgets, small audiences, are regurgitated and repeated by small myopic minded supporters until it’s viewed as a valid reason., rather than question why the club has failed so dramatically off the pitch to keep up with the teams on pitch progression.

The consequences have seen growth stifled, as growth is suffocated within the clubs small mindset of being ‘ Little old Yeovil’ External investment and sponsorship seeks association and identity of it’s brand, yet the club offers a narrow-minded ethos platform for businesses who seek best return on their tight marketing budgets . Sadly, Yeovil Town Football Club is an unattractive product to be linked with on a national basis, its message is contradicting and insular. Its commercial growth envelope is limited to its self-set small catchments area and its past handling of Public Relations events which are a glowing testimony to its incompetencies.

If the club is going to evolve from being 'Little Old Yeovil' and be more of the 'Bigger Better Yeovil'. Change needs to come from the top and now we’ve identified the problem.
23/04/2014 15:15:09

Phil Tucker said ...

This has been both the best and worst season that I have had supporting Yeovil. They say that luck and ref decisions level out over a season. In our situation that has not been the case. It has really been "if it can possibly go wrong then it has". If just one or two referee decisions had gone our way and just one or two stupid players mistakes at the wrong time had not happened then we would have scraped to safety. The fact that we got this far is testimony to the work and effort by GJ and the coaches. Probably my biggest disappointment this season has been the level of home support. If we cannot encourage more local supporters than we have had this year then really we cannot expect to be anything other than a league one / two club. We cannot be a BIGGER club with only 3500 to 5000 supporters willing to hand over cash each week. Simple economics.
23/04/2014 15:43:55

Camelgreen said ...

Heavy stuff Haribo, but you are quite right. You don't have to make the infrastructure bigger make it better. This season has been great playing teams would only normally play in the FA cup, but maybe that's where some of the problem has been,having to play every game as if it were a cup final a squad like ours can't cope. Presumably we will start next season with a healthy budget as there must plenty of promotion cash left in the pot!! I read Mr Linney's article I feel perhaps he's one of the people has been with club too same old same old every home game I don't think anyone listens to his ramblings, although you can't in the Screwfix stand the bloody music is too loud!! (I know miserable old bugger!!) I understand that the commercial office purchased a stall sort of thing to put up in the Quedam on a Saturday to sell season tickets from, allegedly £3.5k, never been used!, didn't think they had any money!,
23/04/2014 17:07:16

Will said ...

What a season, what an experience! But what might have been. The problems are the same old ones that have existed for 20 years. A lack of investment in initiatives that make a real difference. JF deserves an awful lot of credit but, echoing Haribo above, if we are to become bigger and better and not risk sliding like Bristol Rovers, for example, we need people with real business nous. Some measured and calculated risk and investment, over prudence and good fortune.
23/04/2014 20:46:40

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